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Dutch fashion house ￼ Viktor & Rolf aimed to show the "expressive power of clothing" in its latest haute couture show, which featured romantic-style dresses with kitsch slogans.

The designers used five miles of tulle to make its Fashion Statements collection, shown as part of the haute couture schedule in Paris last week.

Each of the 18 dresses, which featured oversized silhouettes, transparent ruffles and puffed sleeves, were emblazoned with meme-inspired slogans like "Sorry I'm late, I didn't want to come" and "No photos please".

According to the designers, the statements are meant to reference the kind of language used on social media or souvenir T-shirts. They don't have a particular meaning, instead inviting onlookers to come to their own conclusions.

"All these statements that are so obvious or easy - there's a lot of banality on Instagram and social media in general - are counterbalanced with this over-the-top, shimmery, romantic feeling," Rolf Snoeren told WWD.

"The juxtaposition of these seemingly unrelated elements results in a typical Viktor & Rolf expression of surreal beauty," said the designers.

The collection's confectionary colour palette ranged from pastel pinks to neon greens and striking violets, while the silhouettes spanned A-lines to more fitted hourglass shapes.

Each slogan is made of layers of laser-cut tulle that has been hand-sewn onto the garments.

Viktor & Rolf mixes Picasso and polo shirts for Spring Summer 2016 haute couture

One look featured an enormous A-line silhouette made of white tulle. Embroidered onto the front was the phrase, "I'm not shy I just don't like you" in all-caps.

Another look was an oversized white tulle silhouette with a lime-green hem and tiered, puffed sleeves. The words "Give a damn" were written in a retro-futurist typeface across its front.

A highlight of the show was a triangular blue ruffled dress with the word "No" written in red capital letters.

The same lettering was used in the brand's Fall 2008 ready-to-wear collection, where the word was crafted into the silhouette of a jacket.

Viktor & Rolf is no stranger to the avant-garde side of couture. In 2016, the fashion duo constructed sculptural white garments to resemble Cubist facial features.

The previous year, they transformed broken picture frames filled with fabric into haute-couture gowns.

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Viktor & Rolf's Spring Summer 2019 couture collection demonstrates the "expressive power of clothing"

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Dutch fashion house ￼ Viktor & Rolf aimed to show the "expressive power of clothing" in its latest haute couture show, which featured romantic-style dresses with kitsch slogans. The designers used five miles of tulle to make its Fashion Statements collection, shown as part of the haute couture schedule in Paris last week.

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Just 6% of S&P 500 companies have a woman CEO, according to a new report assessing the country's top public companies on measures of workplace equality as of this past March.

That makes the 40 chief executives named Michael or James more common than the 31 women CEOs, found the analysis by Equileap, an independent data provider that publishes insights on corporate gender equality.

Chairs of the board named John, meanwhile, outnumbered women chairs 23 to 21; only 4% of companies had a woman chair leading their board of directors. Thirteen percent of companies have a woman CFO, the report said, while nearly eight in 10 companies have no women at the board chair, CEO or CFO level.

"Overall, U.S. companies do well on gender balance with an average of 40% female employees and 60% male employees," the authors wrote. "However, this balance does not make its way to company leadership, with the board, executive and management all averaging less than 30% female representation."

The top scorer on Equileap's gender-equality rankings was General Motors , followed by Nielsen Holdings , Kellogg's , Accenture and Verizon .

Telva McGruder, GM's chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer, said that the automaker in June had "publicly declared our aspiration to become the world's most inclusive company." "Pay equity is a key pillar on this journey, and while we know there is a lot of work ahead to achieve true inclusion, we are proud of our progress and leadership on issues such as equal pay," she told MarketWatch in a statement.

Also read: Women have made gains in the C-suite, but they still face one critical 'broken rung' on the corporate ladder

"We've focused on driving gender diversity at all levels and being an employer of choice for women," added Sandra Sims-Williams, Nielsen's SVP of diversity, equity and inclusion, in an emailed statement. "When we support women, we are supporting not just our associates, but also the wellbeing of families and the communities where we live and work. And that is the foundation of a healthy, inclusive environment."

Using both publicly available information and data solicited from the companies, Equileap ranked companies based on the criteria of leadership and workforce gender balance; equal compensation and work-life balance; gender equality-promoting policies; transparency, accountability and commitment to women's empowerment; and "gender controversies" such as sexual-harassment or gender-discrimination incidents.

Three years after the revival of the #MeToo movement, 69% of S&P 500 companies now have an anti-sexual harassment policy that explicitly condemns workplace sexual harassment and gender-based violence, according to the report - meaning 31% of companies do not have such a policy in place.

Despite "room for improvement," the report notes, that share is substantially higher than the average of 255 European companies (48%) and of 208 U.K. companies (30%). The 2019 global average was 42%.

And with many women leaving the workforce or paring back hours as the pandemic burdens them with additional caregiving duties, only 18% of companies provide both flexible working hours and locations, according to the analysis, which only took into account "entrenched company policy" rather than emergency COVID-19 work-from-home policies. Forty-one percent offer flexible hours, while 20% offer flexible locations.

Moreover, under half of the companies provide two or more weeks of paid primary caregiver leave, with a majority either providing less than two weeks or declining to publish the number. About 14% of companies offer 14 weeks or up, as recommended by the International Labor Organization.

"Data on gender equality in the workplace matters because employees are often beholden to their benefits package at work, in particular in the absence of national legislation," Equileap CEO Diana van Maasdijk said in the report. "For example, the U.S. is the only developed country to not offer statutory, paid maternity leave."

Health-care access is "another example of corporations stepping in to fill the gap is access to healthcare," she added, as the U.S. lacks the universal health coverage that many other developed nations have.

Don't miss: Nearly 15 million Americans lost employer-based health insurance. Here's how to get health coverage again

Four in 10 companies offer insurance-plan options with coverage for immediate family members. While all health plans cover contraception for women in accordance with the Affordable Care Act mandate, just 34 of the companies extend that coverage to men. Meanwhile, 9% of S&P 500 companies offer plans that provide either elective or non-elective abortion coverage.

"Recent legal challenges are chipping away at the health and reproductive care women can obtain, particularly the right to safe abortion," the report authors wrote. "There is now a patchwork of availability, leaving many women in the U.S. unable to access health care without extra costs and delay."

The Equileap report was commissioned by the Tara Health Foundation, which also supports abortion-rights organizations.

"This means that the type and quality of health plans employers choose is an important part of evaluating U.S. companies on gender equality in the workplace," the authors added.

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There are more S&P 500 CEOs named Michael or James than women chief executives

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Just 6% of S&P 500 companies have a woman CEO, according to a new report assessing the country's top public companies on measures of workplace equality as of this past March. That makes the 40 chief executives named Michael or James more common than the 31 women CEOs, found the analysis by Equileap, an independent data provider that publishes insights on corporate gender equality.

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As leaders around the world celebrate women's achievements this month, it's worth examining the year in sexist speech by politicians. The last 12 months, sadly, help put to rest any claims that sexism, even at the highest levels, is a thing of the past. And while U.S. president Donald Trump drew most of the attention for his often sexist rhetoric as he pursued the White House, he has by no means cornered the market on the antiquated practice as the following chronicle demonstrates.

Just last month, South African AmaXhosa King Mpendulo Zwelonke Sigcawu declared that the country is not ready for a female leader, saying, "The country's problems have overwhelmed leaders who are men‚ how much more for a woman," to the amusement of male bystanders.

Others question whether women have a place outside the home at all. Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari dismissed his wife's political acumen after she criticized his leadership in October, saying that she "belongs to my kitchen and my living room." In a June 2016 speech, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan likened a childless woman to "half a person" and said, "A women who rejects motherhood, who refrains from being around the house, however successful her working life is, is deficient, is incomplete."

Russian Senator Vitaly Milonov echoed Erdogan in October, calling women who terminate pregnancies "empty-headed ladies" and saying, "The fact that she is a successful businesswoman, manager, is irrelevant. The relevant is being a mother."

When five female airport guards in Kandahar, Afghanistan were gunned down on their way to work in December, a provincial council member said in a Facebook post, "Women should stay in their homes with hijab and dignity, a valued [position] that God has given them."

In August, Brazil's health minister Ricardo Barros said that "men work harder than women," leaving them less time to look after their health.

And in the U.S. in February, a Republican party leader in Utah wrote a letter opposing a wage-equality bill because men "need to make enough to support their families and allow the Mother [his capitalization] to remain in the home to raise and nurture the children." Last week, a European Parliament member, Janusz Korwin-Mikke, asserted that "women must earn less than men because they are weaker, they are smaller, they are less intelligent."

Other leaders behave as if sexual violence is acceptable, or even funny. At a campaign rally in April 2016, then-mayor of Davao City, Rodrigo Duterte, who won the Philippine presidency, lamented the historical rape of an Australian missionary, saying, "But she was so beautiful, the mayor should have been first. What a waste."

A former Dubai police chief took to Twitter last month to cite what he called a "Swedish proverb": "When a woman says no, she really means to say yes." (Sweden quickly stepped in to say that the country has no such proverb, and " no means no.")

Such commentary is not solely reserved for male politicians. Pushing for Russia's decriminalization of some forms of domestic abuse, Senator Yelena Mizulina said that " a man beating his wife is less offensive than when a woman humiliates a man."

Some political leaders even spring to the defense of others' sexist remarks. When video emerged of Donald Trump claiming to use his power and influence to grab women " by the pussy," the U.K. Independence Party (UKIP) and Brexit leader Nigel Farage excused the comments as " alpha male boasting," saying, "It's the kind of thing, if we are being honest, that men do."

Russian President Vladimir Putin made light of disputed allegations that Trump had hired sex workers on a Moscow visit, joking at the women's expense, " I can hardly believe that he ran off to meet with our girls of low social morals. Although, of course, ours are the best in the world."

Female politicians are also the targets of direct attack. In October, a candidate for UKIP leadership tweeted a request to silence Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon by taping her mouth shut, adding, "And her legs, so she can't reproduce."

Many women in politics say that harassment and sexist commentary are par for the course. Even in Canada, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is lauded for his feminism, MP Michelle Rempel wrote of blatant sexism in Parliament last April, citing instances when a male colleague implored her to talk about issues when she was "less emotional," and when another male parliamentarian responded to a request from her by saying, "It turns me on when you're direct."

In South Africa, a male MP yelled a term for "sex worker" at a female colleague as she took the floor in February, and another female MP was subjected to cat noises while speaking, which some news outlets called a parliamentary "tradition."

And what awaits those who attempt to fight back against sexism on the political stage? More sexism and harassment. In May, when French female MPs said they could no longer stay silent about the scale of the abuse they withstand, " right-wing male MPs began loudly jeering 'aaaw' as if to a child."

Such brazen sexism shows that nowhere in the world have we come as far as we thought - or hoped - on equality, or even human decency.

But we cannot allow the quotidian nature of sexist remarks numb us to their effects, especially when they come from the mouths (or tweets) of political leaders. As British MP and shadow home secretary Diane Abbott recently warned, constant abuse makes "other women look at how those of us in the public space are treated and think twice about speaking up publicly, let alone getting involved in political activity."

Even International Women's Day this year featured sexist leaders. Brazilian President Michel Temer praised women's ability at "pointing out unbalances in supermarket prices." Former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine said U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May has " a man-size job."

When politicians give voice to the ugliest forms of sexism, it is especially important to fight back. What does it say that so many in leadership roles can show public displays of sexism with few, if any, lasting repercussions?

Don't let politicians' photo opportunities during this month of honoring women replace a commitment to gender equality and women's rights during the other 12 months of the year. They can begin by stopping their own sexist language in politics, and demanding the same of leaders everywhere, of all political parties, from city councillor to prime minister, and everyone in between.

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17 Times Politicians have Resorted to Wildly Sexist Speech Over the Last Year

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As leaders around the world celebrate women's achievements this month, it's worth examining the year in sexist speech by politicians. The last 12 months, sadly, help put to rest any claims that sexism, even at the highest levels, is a thing of the past. And while U.S.

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https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/art-exhibitions/louise-bourgeois-woven-child

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The first major retrospective of this legendary artist to focus exclusively on her work using fabrics and textiles.

Standard entry: £15*

Member: free

Concessions: £12**

* Excludes £3 booking fee.

** Limited availability. Read about concessions.

Tickets can only be sold through the Southbank Centre and our authorised agents, and can't be resold. You can return your tickets to the Southbank Centre for a credit voucher up to 48 hours before the event. Tickets resold on any third-party platforms will become invalid.

Members get more

Members get free, unlimited entry to all Hayward Gallery exhibitions. Join ahead of your visit to jump the queue - just show proof of Membership on arrival. Members also enjoy a 10% discount on food and drink at the Hayward Gallery Cafe, and a 20% discount in the Hayward Gallery Shop.

Get presale tickets

Members get the first chance to book our entire programme of events, including go-down-in-history gigs, concerts with world-class orchestras, and talks from cultural icons and political giants.

Hayward Gallery

Our address is: Hayward Gallery, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX.

The nearest tube and train stations within 5-7 minutes walk are Waterloo (Northern, Bakerloo, Jubilee and Waterloo & City lines) and Embankment (District & Circle lines).

There are also lots of bus routes with stops 2-5 minutes from our venues. For more information on getting here by road, rail or river.

Visit our Getting here page

Some free events, including our HENI Project Space exhibitions, don't require a pre-booked ticket - you can simply turn up on the day. These events are labelled FREE on our website with no way to book.

If you don't receive your e-ticket

Members

Advance booking for schools

We are happy to welcome primary, secondary and SEND schools during Hayward Gallery opening hours at the following rates:

Primary schools: Free, booking required.
Secondary schools in Lambeth and Southwark: Free, booking required.
All other secondary schools: £8 per pupil. Accompanying teachers go free.

Please email us with your preferred visit date and any other relevant school and pupil information at[email protected]

If you have any further questions or need anything else to support your visit, please contact the schools team.

For step-free access to the Hayward Gallery from the Queen Elizabeth Hall Slip Road, please use the Hayward Gallery car park lift.

There may be short queues to enter the building and the exhibition. If you are not able to queue or need further assistance, our hosts are here to help you.

Parking
Blue Badge parking at National Theatre
Alternative parking for Blue Badge holders visiting the Southbank Centre can be found at the National Theatre car park (330 metres). If you are visiting the Hayward Gallery, just take your badge and car park ticket to the Ticket Desk in the gallery foyer for validation before you leave.

Please note: on Sunday when the National Theatre building is closed there is no step-free access from the car park.
Blue Badge parking APCOA Cornwall Road

Eating & drinking on-site

The Hayward Gallery Cafe is the ideal spot for some pre-exhibition sustenance or a post-visit drink.

Drop in for a speciality coffee, artisan sandwiches, seasonal fresh salads and an array of homemade cakes and pastries from our in-house baker. Soak up the views with a crisp glass of wine, locally sourced craft ale or one of our signature cocktails.
Find out more

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The first major retrospective of this legendary artist to focus exclusively on her work using fabrics and textiles. Standard entry: £15* Member: free Concessions: £12** * Excludes £3 booking fee. ** Limited availability. Read about concessions. Tickets can only be sold through the Southbank Centre and our authorised agents, and can't be resold.

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Kehinde Wiley | Past exhibitions | National Gallery, London

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Thanks for coming! Re-live some of the best moments of Submerge Festival with our photo recap.

In March 2022, Submerge took the plunge and launched itself headfirst into Manchester with a packed programme of international art, music and creative technology events, talks and workshops.

Releasing the festival into a city already known for high-quality art and culture was daunting, but Manchester audiences made us feel right at home.

We want to thank everyone who took part, came to see shows, volunteered their time or shared our posts, it wouldn't have been possible without you! Below are a few of our favourite moments from the festival, taken by photographer Lee Baxter.

For more of what we got upto be sure to head over to our Instagram, and keep your eyes peeled for more exciting upcoming news about our 2023 artist opportunities and commissions, and our 2024 festival!

Thanks again! Love, Submerge Team xxx

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Submerge best bits and a big thank you to Manchester! - Submerge

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Thanks for coming! Re-live some of the best moments of Submerge Festival with our photo recap. In March 2022, Submerge took the plunge and launched itself headfirst into Manchester with a packed programme of international art, music and creative technology events, talks and workshops. Releasing the festival into a city already known for high-quality art [...]

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Follow up question: What does it mean for how society looks at school girls?

After a teacher at Nelson College for Girls made a passing comment that over the knee socks were creepy porn-video looking, unless completely covered by the skirt, Year 13 student Madi Fulton Buckle was left thinking: Are over the knee socks seen as too sexual?

Two decades on from Britney Spears' ' Baby One More Time' music video, what was once a distinctly unsexy item of clothing, socks, has been sexualised. Then there's the bigger issue: The sexualisation of school girls.

Madi is questioning her friends, school and community about the issue for a documentary, which she hopes will bring attention
Let's start off with this idea of the sexualisation of socks. Where did this come from?
There was talk at my school and comments made that were kind of warning us about how people might perceive us depending on our socks, kind of as silly as that sounds.

I kind of look at it as a representation of our society, which sparked this question of "where does this come from?"

I wanted to talk to people about it. Talk to guys about it - and girls about it - and see what they thought about this idea that socks can determine a person's perspective on what they think your behaviour is in terms of being sexual or not.
Do you think that socks are sexualised?
If you look at the media and the porn industry, women in the male gaze can be sexualised wearing socks, definitely, and this is linked into our everyday lives.

On a much deeper level, it's about the sexualisation of our clothes in general. It's often not about our behaviour but about what we're wearing, which is completely absurd because I guess any piece of clothing can be sexualised if you're acting sexual in it.

I definitely think there's this kind of stigma of this school girl look that is over sexualised and shouldn't be, definitely in an educational sense, be sexualised at all.
I guess that whole schoolgirl look has been played on a lot, with Britney Spears and Iggy Azalea.
Yes, definitely, definitely! And that's where we see it happening in the media and that can happen with anything. We can see celebrities, or movie stars, or singers, or muscians, they can sexualise anything they want.

I mean that Britney Spears video, 'Baby One More Time', was pretty iconic but that was her claiming the look in the way she wanted it to be. And that's not a representation of all girls wearing that uniform right. If we look at well known TV shows, like Home and Away, that's their typical outfit.

My mum went to the same school as me when she was younger. That was a part of her uniform wearing these socks. But it was interesting to hear my school worry about the way the rest of our community might view us if we do have that bit of skin showing between the sock and the skirt.

We're all doing it. We're all sexualising girls in this way, we're just not consciously doing it. I think it's a really good conversation to talk to adults about and I want to talk to boys about it.
This whole idea of "sexy school girls" is kind of weird as it plays on looking at a child in a sexual way.
Yes, exactly. That's why it's kind of controversial, and that is why people are kind of shocked by it. But it's not actually. If I think about our society, I don't actually find it that shocking anymore.

It is something that is happening, I mean, if you look at what the majority of our young boys are watching on the internet in terms of pornography it's quite understandable that these links are being made. I think it's just really something that needs to be addressed because it shouldn't be happening on a school or educational level in anyway.
You're doing this as been part of your Year 13 media studies documentary, right?
Yeah! I thought this would be a really interesting thing to talk about. I have this friend of mine explaining a story that happened to her while being at school that made her think of the over sexualisation of over the knee socks and then I talk to a group of Year 13 girls and a group of year 12 guys, and I kind of get some good banter going.

It's quite light and humorous, because I'm using the example of over the knee socks as something that can be sexualised, but there's much larger scale there. It's a small example but exists in a far larger picture.
When is this going to be finished? Will it be available for the public?
It's actually due on Friday. I've gotta hustle it along and finish editing. At the moment we have a school festival in Nelson which is in November that it will be screened at, but other then that I'm not sure what will happen.
And what do you want people to take away from this idea?
I want people to question their thinking. I don't think there is an easy way to just erase this because it's really engraved in our society and were surrounded by so much sexualisation in the media and constantly exposed to it.

But I think if we start talking about it, it can be, not necessary erased, but make us more aware as a society.
*Interview edited for brevity and clarity.

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How did socks become sexualised? This student wants to know

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Follow up question: What does it mean for how society looks at school girls? After a teacher at Nelson College for Girls made a passing comment that over the knee socks were creepy porn-video looking, unless completely covered by the skirt, Year 13 student Madi Fulton Buckle was left thinking: Are over the knee socks seen as too sexual?

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Skip to main content

Consider the gray suit. Can you imagine any garment more hellishly dull? It's the ultimate expression-in-cloth of white-male conformity. It's what The Man wears, at least in a mid-weight herringbone Harris Tweed. Still, whether it's single or double-breasted, single- or double-vented, with a lapel peaked or notched (shawled is just a touch too louche)-what could be more "classic"? More boring? You might opt for low-rise and skinny pants if you're young but not into fashion, but will probably prefer wider pants, pleated, with either a carrot-leg or a straight-leg if you're either older or young and into fashion. Team it with a classic Chesterfield, topcoat or double-breasted, and a pair of zug-grained Goodyear welted black brogues and you have an ensemble that is, let's face it, pretty meh. Because it's just a gray suit.

Until tonight.

Thom Browne's show was a three-piece suite on the suit (and its trappings), which aimed, via extreme distortion, to unpick, lay flat, then reveal as a thing of beauty the garment around which Browne has built his brand. The show's set was 30 piles of thick gray felt-pattern offcuts-arranged in little shrine-like cairns under 30 workroom lamps.

To easily understand this show you have look at Look 1 against Look 16 and then Look 31. Or Look 2 against Look 17 and Look 32. And so on. Browne was building the same 15 suits (and variations of) in three ways.

The first 15 were arguably the freakiest. On mules (which resembled hooves), the models were cinched into bodysuits on which buttons delineated the outline of the garment Browne envisioned them as. This took a lot of buttons, and Browne's press notes usefully transmitted exactly how many. So Look 15, my favorite simply for being the biggest and most extreme in its second part iteration, was comprised of 1,059 of these buttons, which were the stitches that linked and defined the outline of a double-breasted suit and a double-breasted greatcoat. Really, though, you had to stare pretty hard at the buttons-or read the notes-to get any of that detail for the first 15 looks. The chief impression was of a tentatively treading band of boardroom brothers locked forever in a John Cage-soundtracked endless commute, mitigated only by whatever would fit in that rolling suitcase-"Champagne!" Browne said-and the softening lenses of those blinkering helmet-masks.

Section two laid out the idea. Every look delineated in section one was represented in the flat sum of its parts from the pattern. These were worn half at the front, half at the back. By showing the suits and coats and even the shoes-which were uncobbled asunder-in two dimensions, Browne was leading us to consider their intricacies in three.

Section three put everything together, via button: Those looks were finally tailored into a more conventional whole. Of course, they were barely conventional at all. Hems zipped up and down more dramatically than the New York Times ' pre-election winner projector. Hot pants over leggings are simply not done, old boy. Yet, crazy as Browne's interjections into the architectural niceties of suiting sometimes were, they still honored the spirit of them.

Afterward, Browne explained what this show was about: "Playing with proportion. And an appreciation of making clothing really well. Taking all of the pattern pieces and then making an installation of the pattern pieces . . . sewing it all together, buttoning up on the body. That's what it is! It was a simple idea of playing with proportion."

But what did it mean? Was it a comment about a world gripped by events that seem to defy all previously understood proportion? Browne said not. This was simply a sculptural meditation on the boring old gray suit. "And proportion," insisted this extraordinary designer, precisely.

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Thom Browne Fall 2017 Menswear Collection

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Skip to main content Consider the gray suit. Can you imagine any garment more hellishly dull? It's the ultimate expression-in-cloth of white-male conformity. It's what The Man wears, at least in a mid-weight herringbone Harris Tweed. Still, whether it's single or double-breasted, single- or double-vented, with a lapel peaked or notched (shawled is just a touch too louche)-what could be more "classic"?

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Elise Stefanik, a 33-year-old congresswoman from New York, is a " little girl" who "can always run home to Mommy and Daddy," according to her opponent, Democrat Steve Krieg (he also called her "sweetie" and, after he was criticized for his remarks, said she is "a child"). Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, who is 51, is a " young lady" who "doesn't know a damn thing what she's talking about," says Alaska Rep. Don Young. According to President Donald Trump, his 35-year-old daughter Ivanka begged, "Daddy, can I go with you?" on a trip to push his tax overhaul plan in North Dakota (Ivanka also asked "daddy" if he could do something about parental leave policies). On , host Joy Behar asked former Gov. Mike Huckabee, "How can you let your daughter defend [Trump]?" That daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is 35 years old - and was sitting at The View 's table herself, forced to politely nod along as her dad explained why he allowed his adult daughter to maintain her employment.

When we want to take women down a peg, or undersell their influence, we treat them like little girls.

I've seen this firsthand. When men on social media or website comment sections object to something I've written, they routinely refuse to engage with the subject matter itself, opting instead to call me "Jilly" to put me in my place at the kids' table. Other female writers have written about the nickname condescension as well, most notably Jessica Valenti, who becomes "Jessie" (anyone whose name can't be easily girlified becomes "missy"). Inevitably, if you push back against these insulting diminutives, the rage comes out - now you're a bitch or a slut. It was never about just writing you off; the condescension was a cover for the anger that comes from feeling threatened.

This happens to prominent female officials as well. Elizabeth Warren is alternately "Lizzie," " Betsy Wetsy," or "Pocahontas" (that last insult a winning combination of disdain based on race, gender, and age - Pocahontas barely lived beyond her teenage years). Nancy Pelosi isn't Speaker Pelosi; she's " Princess Nancy." When men are trying to assert their dominance, they occasionally infantilize their male opponents, too - remember "Little Marco" Rubio? - but being treated like a child is not a regular cost of male political ambition.

Women are already less likely than men to be perceived as competent and hireable, even when they have the same education and skill sets. Ambitious women are treated with particular suspicion, as if there's something dubious and undesirable about women who pursue greatness, power, prominence, or even just success in their field. Men who compete with other men are unremarkable; male competition is the natural course of things, and given that men have long dominated electoral politics and many workplaces, competitions for power in politics or the workplace have long been male-only fights. That's no longer the case. Now, women who pursue power, whether that's elected office or a managerial role at work, are often competing with men, too. This co-ed competition touches on some of our deepest assumptions and biases about what women are supposed to be. It touches on some of men's deepest fears about what they stand to lose.

And so women who challenge the status quo must be put in their place. Sometimes, those women come across as so powerful and commanding that it's tough to cast them as hapless children, and so detractors attack them for being too ambitious, suggesting that they must have gotten where they are through the stereotypical evil-female traits of deception and manipulation. These women are ball-busting bitches, cunning liars, and power-hungry harpies (see, for example, Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice, and Michelle Obama). Other times, women's power itself is undercut, and this is where treating you like a child comes in. Often, detractors use both tactics against the same women - infantilizing them as princesses or crybabies, and also smearing them as craven or crazy (just ask Elizabeth Warren and Nancy Pelosi).

There's a particularly insidious tone to the "you're just a little girl" attacks on female politicians that make these insults feel different from those leveled at men. "Girl" is in and of itself a slight, from "throwing like a girl" to being a "girly-man." A "boyish" politician is youthful and charming; a "girlish" one is unserious and coquettish. Girls are silly and frothy; they don't intimidate anyone because they have no real power. When Trump says his daughter begged "daddy" to come along on a work trip, he subverts any claim of authority she has - she may have an office in the West Wing, but he's the all-powerful one to whom she must appeal. Trump, being president, is of course more powerful than his daughter. But as a presidential adviser, she holds some sway nonetheless (at least in theory); his repeated quoting of her asking "daddy" for help is a reminder that she is nothing without his patriarchal authority.

The subtle insinuation that lives just below the surface when men girlify a powerful woman is this: You don't belong here. Lecturing an adult woman as "young lady" or calling someone a "princess" suggests not actual clout, but a spoiled, silly, and overindulged girl - a girl who has been showered in unearned privileges by someone more influential than her, and has gotten a bit too arrogant. These comments remind women that any power they do have is not really theirs, but is a gift from a man - the dad you can run home and cry to, the real men who do know what they're talking about, the father who "lets" you work for the president, the daddy who listens to your cries for paid parental leave.

There is no perfect age to be a woman. Younger women are cast aside as unserious girls, their views, ideas, expertise, and skills insufficient because they supposedly lack competence and gravitas. These stereotypes are so pervasive that other women - even liberal ones - sometimes unthinkingly latch onto them, too. But it doesn't necessarily get better with age. Men can be as old, fat, liver-spotted, and bald as they want to be and still have their own prime-time TV shows, pull top billing in movies, hold public office, and sit in the Oval Office (sometimes accompanied by a spouse a fraction of their age and many magnitudes more attractive). But women who have crossed some ever-changing threshold of what's young enough to be considered attractive are supposed to drag their sagging carcasses off into the bushes and die with dignity (or at least disappear from public view). Few things make misogynists angrier, and a lot of the public more uncomfortable, than the ones who keep talking in public anyway.

And if you happen to wake up one day in the body of a woman of a certain age - or if you see these women in Congress and find that you relate - you may observe that older women are sometimes still mocked them in girlish terms; this remains a swift way to demote even a more seasoned woman from a respected professional to little more than a whiny child or a demanding princess. Minutes later, you may find that sexists have forgone the "young lady" condescension, and in breakneck speed the spoiled princess has morphed, in their estimation, into a wrinkled but still wicked witch.

The lifespan of the prominent powerful woman seems to careen from bobble-headed little girl straight to crazy, scheming old shrew - and then right back to pouty little princess, because the infantilization never ends. It's enough to give you whiplash - or make you wish you were a middle-aged man.
Jill Filipovic is the author of The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness. Follow her on Twitter.

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The Infantilization of Adult Professional Women

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Elise Stefanik, a 33-year-old congresswoman from New York, is a " little girl" who "can always run home to Mommy and Daddy," according to her opponent, Democrat Steve Krieg (he also called her "sweetie" and, after he was criticized for his remarks, said she is "a child"). Democratic Rep.

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The Infantilization of Women in Mainstream Media and Society

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By: Tavisha Sood Throughout history, women’s physical appearance has been under dispute, constantly being altered, reshaped, redesigned and rethought for the benefit of the patriarchal society and the male gaze. Over time, the slow and steady infantilization of women, in particular of their physical…

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Infantilization of Women | Effects & Examples of Infantilization - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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Read about the infantilization of women and sexual infantilism. Learn the infantilize definition and explore the social linguistic practice towards...

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CHARTS: Guys Like Women In Their Early 20s Regardless Of How Old They Get

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Men at every age are consistently most attracted to women in their early 20s.

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Ask your phone, Echo, or computer something. Or call your bank and talk to the automated menu. I'll wait.

Whatever you asked, a synthesized version of a woman likely answered you, polite and deferential, pleasant no matter the tone or topic.

That's because Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and their foremothers have been doing this work for years, ready to answer serious inquiries and deflect ridiculous ones. Though they lack bodies, they embody what we think of when we picture a personal assistant: a competent, efficient, and reliable woman. She gets you to meetings on time with reminders and directions, serves up reading material for the commute, and delivers relevant information on the way, like weather and traffic. Nevertheless, she is not in charge.

When performed by humans, these tasks have sociological and psychological consequences. So one might think that using an emotionless AI as a personal assistant would erase concerns about outdated gender stereotypes. But companies have repeatedly launched these products with female voices and, in some cases, names. But when we can only see a woman, even an artificial one, in that position, we enforce a harmful culture.

Still, consumers expect a friendly, helpful female in this scenario and that is what companies give them.

"We tested many voices with our internal beta program and customers before launching and this voice tested best," an Amazon spokesperson told PCMag.

A Microsoft spokesperson said Cortana can technically be genderless, but the company did immerse itself in gender research when choosing a voice and weighed the benefits of a male and female voice. "However, for our objectives-building a helpful, supportive, trustworthy assistant-a female voice was the stronger choice," according to Redmond.

Apple's Siri and the Google Assistant currently offer the option to switch to a male voice; Siri since 2013 and Google since October. But Alexa and Cortana don't have male counterparts.

Consider that IBM's Watson, an AI of a higher order, speaks with a male voice as it works alongside physicians on cancer treatment and handily wins Jeopardy. When choosing Watson's voice for Jeopardy, IBM went with one that was self-assured and had it use short definitive phrases. Both are typical of male speech-and people prefer to hear a masculine-sounding voice from a leader, according to research-so Watson got a male voice.

Women, meanwhile, use more pronouns and tentative words than men, according to Psychologist James W. Pennebaker. Pronoun use, particularly of the word "I," is indicative of lower social status. AI assistants are very prone to using "I," particularly in taking responsibilities for mistakes. Ask Siri a question she can't process and she says, "I'm not sure I understand."

It's critical that we challenge stereotypical gender roles in our personal assistants. Our interactions with AI teach and train it, but we are also shaped by these experiences. It's why parents are concerned about unintentionally raising rude children when Alexa does not require a "please" or "thank you" to carry out a task.

As our relationship with technology enters a new stage of intimacy, it's worrying to think of what will happen when some people's primary sexual experiences will be with a sexually acquiescent robot. Sexually harrassing Siri for a YouTube video might be amusing to some, but it's unsettling to hear how similar that language is to what women hear from street harassers. There is the same societal expectation that both just accept it.

Humans aim for linguistic style matching in their social interactions, meaning they try to match the language patterns of the human-and now AI-with which they are speaking. But as AI enters our physical realm, there are serious personal and social consequences for treating it in a degrading manner. The companies behind AI are cashing in on bias and that is not the way to a utopia, tech or otherwise.

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The Real Reason Voice Assistants Are Female (and Why it Matters)

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Ask your phone, Echo, or computer something. Or call your bank and talk to the automated menu. I'll wait. Whatever you asked, a synthesized version of a woman likely answered you, polite and deferential, pleasant no matter the tone or topic.

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Dust to dust: the photographer who stared death in the face - in pictures

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In the early 1990s, British photographer Jo Spence used her last work The Final Project to create a poetic and morbidly funny reflection on her terminal cancer

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4-patch textured quilt

Textured quilt

You can buy the quilt tutorials in one single PDF document. The document contains a step by step instructions with colour photos in a 60+ page booklet each.

Four patch textured quilt pattern

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If you're only interested in learning a few fabric manipulations, then here you have my tutorials.

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Order my book Turnabout Patchwork

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4-patch textured quilt https://youtu.be/ZMX6BSp-TiQ Textured quilt You can buy the quilt tutorials in one single PDF document. The document contains a step by step instructions with colour photos in a 60+ page booklet each. Four patch textured quilt pattern 4-patch textured quilt on Etsy Textured quilt pattern 25 fabric manipulation quilt on Etsy If you're only...

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Explore a hand-picked collection of Pins about fmp on Pinterest.

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https://joylux.com/blogs/news/debunking-the-double-standard-on-aging-in-men-vs-women

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Can you name a single gray-haired female CEO or member of Congress?

Neither can we.

Despite the fact that celebrities like Diane Keaton and Jamie Lee Curtis are widening our view of what it means to be a 'silver fox', there is still a massive double standard on how men and women age. We think it's time to change that.
Fine Wine vs. Glass of Milk
We don't know who originally coined the saying, "Men age like a fine wine, women age like a glass of milk", but we'd like to sit them down for a serious chat.

As women, we all know the frustration of not being able to shed a single pound, while our male counterparts seem to lose weight in their sleep. And while a single gray hair can spark an existential crisis for a woman, it's seen as a sexy mark of distinction in men.

We all know aging is a natural part of life, but accepting it is a whole other thing. The truth is, women suffer an impossible paradox - embrace your age, but stay beautiful in the eyes of society. Or, in the words of comedian, Tina Fey, "'You can have it all and be serious,' but also, 'It's great to get Botox,' and 'You should be really skinny but don't be, but don't not be!'"

It's confusing to say the least.
What happens to men versus women as they age
Despite the giant rift in the way we view aging, and the harmful stigmas around menopause, the process itself is fundamentally the same for all human bodies. At the end of the day, we all age.

But even the World Health Organization (WHO) points out some important differences in the way men and women age - differences that reach beyond basic physiology. "Aging differs between men and women, through mind, body, and their emotional capacity. The aging pattern for each gender greatly depends on the society an individual was raised in and their personal smoking, alcohol abuse, infectious disease, nutrition, poverty, access to education, work conditions, violence, and health care," says the WHO.

For women, the mental and emotional aspects of aging can have a major impact on their lives. In fact, according to a 2014 study, most women begin to feel invisible by the time they're 51. The same study also found that 75% of women felt ignored by men when they walked into a room and 50% felt as if they'd been "left on a shelf" or judged negatively because of their age.

But the worst part? Only 15% of the women surveyed reported feeling confident in any area of their life.

How can we change the narrative?
The good news is change is underway.

In one leading example, Allure magazine recently announced it will no longer use the term "anti-aging". "Whether we know it or not, [the term is] subtly reinforcing the message that aging is a condition we need to battle - think anti-anxiety meds, antivirus software, or antifungal spray. Repeat after me: Growing older is a wonderful thing because it means that we get a chance, every day, to live a full, happy life," says Allure Editor-in-Chief, Michelle Lee.

Michelle also recommends removing the qualifiers from our language when we talk about women over 40. For example, "She looks great...for her age". You might be surprised how small changes in the way we discuss taboo topics can make a big difference in the way we perceive them.

In another leading initiative, two aging advocacy groups in the US have joined forces to launch a project known as Reframing Aging. Their mission is to drive collective change in the way we think and speak about aging. Ironically, one of the key tricks to it is to not overthink it. The more we dwell on aging, the bigger an issue it becomes.

But let's be honest. Most of us are going to end up thinking about how we're aging, at least sometimes. In those instances, we recommend taking a page from Sue Ellen Cooper's book. Sue Ellen is the founder of the Red Hat Society, a playgroup celebrating women age 50 and over. "First impression doesn't tell you a thing," says Sue Ellen. "Some of these people have had incredible lives and careers and still have a great sense of humor and a lot of intellect, and the culture will write them off: 'Oh, she's an old lady...'".

These women - and you - deserve to not be written off. Who you are matters so much more than how old you are. Celebrate the confidence and wisdom you've acquired. Embrace your growth. BUT, if there are certain physical changes that shake your confidence, don't allow you to enjoy certain activities or exercise, or take pleasure in intimate acts, know there are tools, like vFit, to help.

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Debunking the Double Standard on Aging in Men vs. Women

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Can you name a single gray-haired female CEO or member of Congress? Neither can we. Despite the fact that celebrities like Diane Keaton and Jamie Lee Curtis are widening our view of what it means to be a 'silver fox', there is still a massive double standard on how men and women age.

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https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduate/modules/literaturetheoryandtime/susan_sontag_the_double_standard_of_aging.pdf

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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_standard_of_aging

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A double standard occurs when women are held to a higher standard than men with respect to aging. It is most prevalent towards females in the 35-55 age range.

When judging a person with nobody around, both males and females will judge differently from when judging that same person in a group setting. The physical changes that women undergo through the process of aging affects how they are perceived more strongly than the changes that men experience.

As illustrated in a Berman, O'Nan and Floyd study, a female is likely to be judged higher in a private social setting by both males and females than she would in a group social setting. Once the social setting became a group, the women were rated consistently lower, in terms of attractiveness, when compared to men middle-aged and younger, than they were when in a private setting.

In a separate study conducted by Deutisch, Zalenski and Clark, a double standard of aging was evidenced in all represented age groups. It was determined that both males and females were judged lower in attractiveness as they aged; however, the difference in ratings of attractiveness due to age was much greater for women than for men. This study also found a difference in judgement in terms of masculinity and femininity. For men as they aged their attractiveness was judged as decreasing slightly and when judged based on masculinity there was no change. The women in the other hand were judged far less attractive with age as well as being less feminine.

1. ^ Phyllis W. Berman, Barbara A. O'Nan and Wayne Floyd, The double standard of aging and the social situation: Judgments of attractiveness of the middle-aged woman, SEX ROLES Volume 7, Number 2, 87-96

2. ^ Mary Harris, Growing Old Gracefully: Age Concealment and Gender, Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, Volume 49, Number 4, pages 149-158

3. ^ Francine M. Deuisch, Carla M. Zalenski, Mary E. Clark, Is There a Double Standard of Aging, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Volume 16, Issue 9, pages 771-785, December 1986

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A double standard occurs when women are held to a higher standard than men with respect to aging. It is most prevalent towards females in the 35-55 age range.[1]

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https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890406520300463

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From double to triple standards of ageing. Perceptions of physical appearance at the intersections of age, gender and class

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Since the 1970s, when Susan Sontag coined the term, discussions on the double standard of ageing has continued to evolve. Recently, scholars of femini…